Many people, including Christians, have been taught to believe that experiencing negative circumstances is a sign that God is disciplining his children. After all, doesn’t God punish sin?

To further complicate matters, it can be difficult to understand God’s dealings with man in the Old Testament compared to what we see in the New Testament Jesus. But does the Bible really support such a claim that God punishes his children?

Thankfully, even a cursory glance of Scripture, demonstrates a more accurate theology of how God actually relates to his children, even when they exhibit sinful behavior. And what you find might shock you.

Consider the following stories:

• David had Uriah, the husband of the woman he had an affair with, killed, yet God referred to David as a “man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14; 2 Samuel 11:1-12:15),

• Abraham asked his wife to lie about their relationship to the Egyptians, so his life would be spared (subsequently giving his wife as a concubine to the Pharaoh), yet God called Abraham righteous (Genesis 12:11-12; Genesis 15:6),

• God instructed Jonah to prophesy to the city of Ninevah, but Jonah disobeyed and ran away, yet God spared his life when he was thrown overboard (Jonah 1:3; 10; 15; 17).

Now, these are just a FEW examples from the Old Testament of God’s dealings with man, that depict quite the opposite picture of God’s discipline than what we’ve been taught to believe today.

These stories prove there is a lot more to God’s dealings with man than meets the eye, and should cause us to at least question the doctrine we’ve established regarding how God disciplines his children.

While we can certainly break down each of these stories in their context and understand something about God’s judgement and mercy, the real question is,

“How does God deal with me now that I’m in Christ?”

The simple answer is this: If your sins have been removed from you when you put your faith in Christ, then what’s left to judge? What’s left to punish?

In fact, Paul writes Romans 5:8, that God proved his love for us in that “…while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Therefore, since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from wrath through Him!…”

Paul teaches that the position of the believer who has put their hope in Christ is that we are actually saved from God’s wrath. So when negative circumstances happen, we can be sure that this is not God’s wrath or judgement coming upon us. Instead, through discipline, (God speaking to us, training us, and rebuking us,) God seeks to prevent us from falling into negative circumstances and thereby experiencing unnecessary pain.